The Top 10 News Stories Of 2015 [PHOTOS]

Black Lives Matter demonstrators and supporters march through downtown Minneapolis, Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2015, heading to the Federal Building. The fatal shooting of Jamar Clark, a black man, by a Minneapolis police officer, has pushed racial tensions in the city’s small but concentrated minority community to the fore, with the police precinct besieged by the makeshift encampment and many protesters. (AP Photo/Jim Mone)

Ferguson. Cleveland. Baltimore. Chicago. Minneapolis. Black Lives Matter’s legitimacy was only strengthened by the constant assault by police in cities around the nation on Black bodies. Not only did the police killings of unarmed Black men and women continue, federal investigations and journalism exposès in Cleveland, in Baltimore and in Ferguson documented a pattern of racist policing and policy that permeated departments large and small.

Activists took to the streets, to social media and to the political campaign trail, holding candidates’ feet to the fire and keeping attention focused on the dereliction of duty in many police departments that paid lip service to serving and protecting but instead killed those they were sworn to help.

As for Black Twitter, they continued to provide a space for instant celebrity shade and slander, serious social activism, Black solidarity and often biting critiques of mainstream society’s overt racism. Best hashtags this year: #OscarsSoWhite #AskRachel #BlackLivesMatter #ThanksgivingClapBacks #SlowBlackTracks and #StayMadAbby.